Rick Santorum, who rose in the polls thanks to enthusiastic support from Christian conservatives, faced pressure Sunday from a key Republican evangelical to end his increasingly long-shot White House bid.

Richard Land, a top official with the powerful Southern Baptist Convention, urged Santorum to abandon the race and throw his support to frontrunner Mitt Romney to increase Republicans' chances of defeating Barack Obama in November.

"Rick's a good friend. I like Rick a lot," Land told CBS "Face the Nation" program on Sunday.

But he said, "as his friend I would say to him, 'you know, you ought to seriously consider leaving the race now'," the prominent Baptist clergyman said.

...

But after their candidate failed to pick up sufficient steam to seize the nomination, Christian conservatives met again with Santorum last week, to strategize about how they should proceed going forward.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, trounced Santorum in primaries held last week in Washington, DC, Wisconsin and Maryland, lending additional credence to his case that he will be the party's inevitable pick.

Land told CBS that the tea leaves appeared not to favor Santorum -- although he left open the possibility that he could be a strong contender for a future Republican party nomination.

"In eight years he'll be three years younger than Romney is now," said Land.

He added, however, that "running for president is a very personal decision, when to get out is a very personal decision, and he's going to have to make that," Land told CBS.

Ebbing support among Christian leaders would come at a bad time for Santorum, who has denied rumors that he is plotting his exit from the race to avoid what could be an embarrassing loss in his home state of Pennsylvania.

With the Pennsylvania primary only a few weeks away, the window of opportunity to have a graceful exit from the campaign will shut and he will face an embarrassing loss in Pennsylvania. Mitt Romney is ahead in the polls in Pennsylvania and ahead in the polls nationally. Even if Rick Santorum manages to win in his home state, the primaries in May will not go as well as he thinks it will. If Santorum loses in Pennsylvania, then he should drop out of the race immediately.

14 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Theoretically, Rick can run again in 8 years. But in the meantime, he's going to need a major personality / character make-over, and I don't think he can do it.

Another thing I would like to say is that Rick has a daughter who needs him home right now. I feel so strongly about this. I gave Sarah Palin a bad time because I felt her decision to run for VP was detrimental to her special needs child. Bella Santorum needs Rick's full attention even more! She may not be here long. He should be spending every single minute with her. I suspect he will regret it, if he doesn't. He has no business running for president right now.

I didn't think it was possible for me to think better of Newt Gingrich than of Rick Santorum, but congratulations Rick, you did it. You have now exceeded Newt when it comes to narcissism, ego, and putting your career above your family.

I have a friend who had a baby with Trisomy 18. She died at about 1 month old. I would be willing to bet that her parents would not give up any time spent with her to pursue a hopeless cause.

Santorum will not win the nomination, however it is possible that the ongoing bitter primary battle can cost the GOP sufficient support that we can be subjected to 4 more years of an incompetent president known as Obama.

I am very turned off that Santorum is willing to lose the White House in 2012 to give himself a chance at 2016. Maybe he thinks it's good for him, but I know it is very bad for our country.

Again, I did not think it was possible for me to like Newt more than Rick, but here I am. Congratulations Rick.

I totally agree, Martha and Noelle. Putting family behind career... you reap what you sow. Yes, I get it that all the other family members are up on stage with him wearing their bella badges. But that does not take the place of spending valuable time with her.

I hope Mitt wins PA by more that 17.3 points. I home he creams him so Santroum gets the hint that it was not God calling him to the presidency, but it was his own ego.

"I would be willing to bet that her parents would not give up any time spent with her to pursue a hopeless cause." If Conservatism is such a hopeless cause, we might as well pack up and head for some Island in the South Atlantic.

OJ, what about Rick makes him the sole avatar of conservatism? Where is he SO much more conservative than Romney on the issues? Noone said conservatism is a hopeless cause, but Rick Santorum for president certainly is at this point.

You used to write an interesting article on the delegate math...why don't you write another one and show us how Santorum has a reasonable chance to win?